Get a load of these gilded flapjacks! Turmeric & Co. (cinnamon, black pepper, ground ginger and cardamon) team up in this vegan pancake recipe to create the most lavish and fluffy golden pancakes that you’ve ever seen. Superbly crispy on the outside, fluffy as a fine satin pillow on the inside, these golden milk pancakes brim with heavenly, nostril-snaring spice, and will be extraordinarily well received on breakfast tables everywhere. So raid your spice racks, break out your cast-iron skillets, and grease your pancake-flipping elbow, because this is one vegan pancake recipe that you’re going to want to experience firsthand!
“Spices, of course, are essential.”
– Marcus Samuelsson
What Spices Will I Need For This Vegan Pancake Recipe?
These are the essential spices that you’ll need for any golden milk batter, and so too for this vegan pancake recipe.
You always have the option of buying some spices – like ground turmeric – in bulk. Buying in bulk is a much more economical way of purchasing ingredients, especially ground spices, which can sometimes be quite expensive.
Likewise, you can also buy the whole versions of the spice, like cardamon seeds or black peppercorns, and then grind them yourself in a mortal and pestle or spice grinder. Freshly ground spices have a bigger, more vibrant flavor.
“Black pepper is necessary to absorb the key antioxidants in most spices and foods, including turmeric, so get a pepper grinder and fill it with Tellicherry peppercorns.”
– Steven Gundry
How To Make Golden Milk Pancakes: A Video
“Spice a dish with love and it pleases every palate.”
– Plautus
Why Let The Pancake Batter Sit?
This vegan pancake recipe has about a tablespoon of baking powder in it. This is of course the leavening agent that helps these golden milk pancakes rise to great heights, and so become amazingly fluffy on the inside, too.
Baking powder is unique in so much as it has two activations: one when you combine it with all the other ingredients, and another during the cooking process itself.
For this reason, letting your pancake batter sit for 5 minutes allows the baking powder to do its thing, expanding and creating space in the batter right from the start. That way, when you go to fry up your first pancake, it’s already spacious and bodacious and beautifully fluffy.
You can actively see this happening right before your eyes as little bubbles emerge and be-speckle the surface of the batter.
Also, an unrested pancake batter is the culprit behind the myth of the first pancake of the batch being never quite as good as those that follow it. The first hasn’t usually had the luxury of resting as long as the others, and so didn’t reap the benefits of baking powders wondrous pre-cook expansion period.
“I love to use a lot of spices when I cook, so we actually cast a real peppercorn in gold and then just made a bead out of it for necklaces and earrings.”
– Padma Lakshmi
Why Use A Combination of All-Purpose and Almond Flour?
I would highly suggest using both all-purpose flour (or a gluten-free all-purpose flour mix) and almond flour in this vegan pancake recipe.
All-purpose flour can be rather bland, or more diplomatically stated “a blank canvas,” and so often I’ll combine it with another flour that has more of an interesting taste or texture to it.
Almond flour, as far as flours go, is pretty great in that regard, and almost always works well as a combined flour. It’s moist, nutty, and has a pleasant texture that especially compliments all-purpose.
Two parts all-purpose and one part almond flour is a tried, test and true ratio in most vegan pancake recipes. The dryness of the all-purpose easily counteracts the overt moisture of the almond flour.
In this vegan pancake recipe, this combination of flours will produce for you a pancake that is not overly dense, but light and fluffy, and of course brimming with flavor.
“When I stopped eating meat, I fell in love with East Indian food – there’s so much selection, and they use the most beautiful spices.”
– Laura Mennell
Looking For More Recipes For Your Breakfast Table?
Turmeric, Ginger & Red Pepper Tofu Frittata
“That’s the Indian in me – you must put spices on everything. As a kid, whenever we got sick, my mom would take milk and put turmeric in it. That was our medicine. That was the cure-all. Some people turn to Robitussin.”
– Aasif Mandvi
Did you enjoy this vegan pancake recipe? Consider leaving me a comment and recipe rating (clicking on the star) before you go!
Fluffy Golden Milk Pancakes
Equipment
- Cast-iron pan or skillet
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (250g)
- ½ cup almond flour (125g)
- 1 ½ tablespoons brown sugar (20g)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder (15g)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground turmeric
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cardamon
- 1 cup plain oat milk, + 2 tablespoons or so for thinning the batter (250ml + 30ml)
- 1 ½ tablespoons ground flaxseed (22.5g)
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (15ml)
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup (15ml)
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Some vegan butter, for frying the pancakes
Instructions
- First, in a large mixing bowl, combine together the all-purpose flour, almond flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices (turmeric, cinnamon, pepper, ginger and cardamon). Then, in separate bowl, whisk together the oat milk, ground flaxseed, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and fold together thoroughly until it's a cohesive batter. Let this sit for about 5 minutes, until small bubbles begin to emerge from the batter.
- Meanwhile, heat a cast-iron skillet over medium heat, and melt a little vegan butter in the pan. Once the batter has sat for 5 minutes, add about a ⅓ cup of the pancake batter to the skillet and form into a circle. If the batter is too thick to freely spread, consider adding a couple tablespoons more milk to it. Fry the golden milk pancakes for about 2 – 3 minutes on each side, or until golden brown and a little crispy. Repeat this until all the batter is used, refreshing the vegan butter in the pan each time you do so. Eat right away! This should yield 5 – 6 fluffy golden milk pancakes!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
May you have good food in good company,
That Vegan Nephew
I love pancakes. This is another great flavor to add to our favorites list. Yummy, creamy, and delicious. A side benefit: the heavenly scent of spices filled the house with goodness too.